Banjo secures Bruce Matchett as new executive creative director

Bruce Matchett, the former creative head of SapientNitro in Singapore, has returned to Australia as a partner and executive creative director at Banjo as part of the agency’s next stage of expansion.

The former JWT, Ogilvy and Saatchi & Saatchi powerhouse has been working with the Sydney agency that is part-owned by John Singleton since the beginning of the year.

Despite keeping a low profile, Matchett has been pivotal to a number of recent wins for the agency.

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Agency founders Andrew Varasdi and Ben Lyttle convinced Matchett to make the move back to Australia late last year.

Varasdi said the chance to lure the world-class creative director back to Australia could not be passed up and even in a short time he has had a positive influence on the agency.

“Twelve months ago we sat down as an agency to work out how we are going to future-proof ourselves from a creative point of view,” Varasdi told Mumbrella.

“We wanted to understand what is the right structure. What we have got in Bruce is a world-class creative coming out of a leading agency in Sapient Singapore.

“He understands the Australian market and is very forward-thinking in terms of the digital platform.”

Matchett’s arrival has seen the agency start to build a digital team.

The move marks a return to Australia for Matchett, who enjoyed a successful stint at Ogilvy between 2007 and 2010 before moving to Singapore to join Saatchi & Saatchi. There, he teamed up with Andy Greenaway, with whom he renewed his partnership at Sapient Nitro in June 2014.

In an email, Matchett told Mumbrella Asia: “I’m having a wonderful time in this new partnership at Banjo working alongside this talented duo, the past few months have been tremendous we’ve already had a flying start by winning four pitches in the past few weeks.”

“We are building a very unique, creatively collaborative unit here at Banjo and we are having an awful lot of fun,” he said.

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